Peter James Carroll is a British occultist born in 1953 in southern England. He began his esoteric career at the University of London, where he earned a degree in chemistry with a pass, while simultaneously developing his own experiments in magic, which would serve as the basis for his first works.
In the late 1970s, together with Ray Sherwin, he co-directed the magazine The New Equinox, rooted in the magical revival, then in 1978 founded the Illuminates of Thanateros (IOT) lodge, often considered the first institutionalized chaos magic order. At the same time, he published Liber Null in 1978, followed by Psychonaut in 1982, two fundamental works of chaos magic, combined into a single volume in 1987.
His approach aims to explore magic through altered states of consciousness (the "gnosis") and without rigid symbolic structure, a stance that revolutionized occult practices. He also introduced concepts such as Kia, the force of individual consciousness, and Chaos, the fundamental force of reality connected to this consciousness.
Carroll led the IOT as Grand Master before gradually stepping back in 1995, defining himself simply as a practitioner rather than a leader of chaos magic. In 2005, he taught at the Maybe Logic Academy, an invitation from Robert Anton Wilson.
He then founded the Arcanorium College, where he serves as chancellor, and maintains connections with occult groups such as the Knights of Chaos and the Dobunni Grove.
